Update on garden, recycling, slightly political

I posted my Cheer leader plaque on Ebay. I made $4.99. Not bad for a dumpster dive find. Only one of them sold. I guess because it had the H on it, the other one was turned and didn't have the H and didn't get bid on. I mailed it to someone who's home town started with an "H."

I cleaned out my closet, finding a set of sheets for a size bed I no longer use. I have the headboard/foot board, but no mattresses. I decided to keep them, in case we need material. One is a high thread count, the other is microfiber. We're in the beginnings of a depression....don't throw anything away.

My husband took the louver doors down from my sons' closets. He was going to scrap them out. I stopped him. Compost bins. He's going to take the brass fixtures off of them, take them apart and use them as the borders for my compost bins. I compost for a season, lasagna style, and then it's ready to plant the next season. I did this last season and now I have one plot ready to plant. I haven't gardened in a while, and it's a nice way to break in to doing it again. You don't want to jump in to doing a lot of gardening. You'll burn out and your garden will turn into an untended jungle of unproduction. We just moved into this house last year (in April) and the previous owners left a lot of stuff behind. There was some kind of what looks like a shelving unit, but we can't figure out how it goes together and don't think it's all there. We're going to use parts of it as a trellis for the climbing plants, you know, cucumbers, peas, things like that. I'm not sure what I have room for in my little plot. I have priorities and we'll see when I start plotting it out. It's still a little cold.

But it's warming up here in Texas, and I'm getting that spring fever. I may start turning the leaves under. They didn't really rot like I'd hoped they would over the winter. I put a layer of leaves over the top of the compost to keep the worms warm over the winter. Now with the weather in the 40's and higher, it may get too warm. I'm not real sure what I'm doing here, playing it by ear. My husband says my plot is not big enough, but he's a city boy, what does he know? He didn't even know to pull the suckers off the tomato plants. I may find time today to turn the leaves and measure the plot.

So, our plans include stripping down the louver doors. When it warms up, we're going to hire my husband's sister's fiance to pull out the pom pus grass. That will give us an area to put the new compost bin in. Then I can start putting compost out in. We also picked up an old drawer off the side of the road. We have to pull the drawer pull off of it (brass) and knock out the bottom, and it's a ready made compost bin. It would hold a couple pepper plants. He also picked up a couple drawers that someone had already destroyed, so it's just the sides and ends. The hardware is usually brass or some metal that's able to be turned in.

Right now, most of the money that is being turned in is going towards my son's summer camp. We've already collected about $50. I'm donating $10 a week of my allowance (I get $15 a week). My son is donating his whole $3 allowance. He gets $3 as a set allowance, at the age of 10, and if he does any extra chores, it's 25 cents a chore. At this point, he's not really motivated to do extra chores. I don't know why, he's trying to earn money to go to camp. But, he's going on can runs with his dad. His dad is letting him keep what they collect in cans. They pick up aluminum cans and any other scrap metal they can turn in. They pick up tire weights, broken electronics, anything, then on Saturday take it to the recycle center. Every little bit counts.

My husband says I shouldn't be writing about this. The more people who know, the less will be there for him to pick up. But, I look at the number of people reading my blog, and figure he's safe.

I had a thought that goes with politics a bit. With the economy edging towards collapse, I was thinking how bad things could get. There are a lot of people who see the worst possible scenarios coming down. They see terrorists running in the streets, targeting conservatives, Christians, anyone who they think could have "caused" this to happen. Of course, it could go the other way, and they could blame the Obama administration. But, if they decide it's the fault of the capitalists, it might not be a bad idea to buy (at a thrift store) a few liberal-slanted t shirts so you could pose as a liberal. Don't attack me, I claimed to be a capitalist up front. And if you're on this site and a liberal, sorry. Guess you won't know who you're friends are. Welcome to the crowd. I just got attacked by a mole in a conservative blog. We'll adopt your tactics.

I guess that's what gave me the idea. Liberals have infiltrated our blogs. They pose as us, and live among us, but they can't hide their ideals, and eventually attack because they can't have calm discussions. They can't discuss with facts, they have to attack the person, and name call. It always comes out. So, we as conservatives will have to learn to fight like a liberal to hide among you. I can name-call. I can fight with emotion and pretend to be a liberal. I can have a bunch of liberal clothes and go among the liberals and fit in. I can be a chameleon and you would never know I was a conservative. I just hope it doesn't come to that, because I would feel like I sold my soul.

Lori Ann Smith